In a principal aspect, the present invention relates to a set of gauges for measurement of the thickness of a brake pad lining mounted to a caliper in a disc brake assembly.
Often a mechanic needs to determine the amount of wear of a disc brake pad on a caliper mount of a disc brake assembly. Because the pad attached to the caliper is subjected to repeated braking events, the brake pad lining becomes worn. Often, in order to evaluate the extent of wear, it is necessary to remove the wheel of the vehicle to secure access to the brake assembly and effectively measure the thickness of the brake pad lining. This is a time consuming and sometimes expensive undertaking. Nonetheless, in order to promote safety and evaluate whether a pad requires replacement, such activity is required. Moreover, during general inspections of vehicles, many automobile repair shops have a checklist which requires such inspection and evaluation subsequent to certain mileage events.
In an effort to avoid disassembly of or removal of a wheel assembly from a vehicle, various proposals have been suggested for tools or gauges which will enable inspection of the wear of a disc brake pad lining. U.S. Pat. No. 6,931,744 entitled “Portable Brake Pad Measuring Tool” granted Aug. 23, 2005 discloses such a tool. Another example of gauges for measuring the wear of a brake pad is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,845,091 entitled “Brake Pad Measuring Tool and Method of Using Same”. Additionally, tools of this general nature are available from various sources and identified as Brake Lining Thickness Gauge, Product Code KDT 3962; and Disc Brake Lining Wear Gauge with Fractional Scale, KD-2116D offered by KD Tools, for example.
Despite these various approaches, there remains the difficulty and necessity on many occasions to remove the entire wheel assembly (wheel and tire) in order to achieve access to the disc brake assembly. If that effort can be avoided, a great deal of time and effort can be saved. Thus, there has remained the need for a tool or set of tools which can be effectively used for measurement of the thickness of disc brake pad lining without necessarily removing the wheel assembly associated with the vehicle.